Lamptron FC-2 Fan Controller Aesthetic Mod

IKIKUINTHENUTZ here with a new completed mod

Lamptron FC-2 fan controller mod
MFG Product Link

I introduce my latest modification, my LED switch out and how to fix the not fully lid LED lights on the sides of the unit.

For those of you who don't know, this fan controller has an aesthetic problem of having the LEDs not show up in the corners. Below here is a Image I borrowed from overclock3d.com

As you can see, the unit uses bright blue LEDs and doesn't fully illuminate the unit at the edges.

When I bought my black colored FC-2 from performance-pcs
http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...t_info&manufacturers_id=158&products_id=24896
I was thinking that my LEDs were too bright and I wasn't too fond of blue and so I decided to switch it out.

My original idea when I started with this project was to switch out the blue LEDs in favor for white LEDs, however during the process I learned some important facts and then I decided to fix the non side illumination issue along with switching out the LEDs.

First I unscrewed the whole unit apart


After doing that I decided to inspect the unit and I noticed this


If Lamptron indeed put a led on the sides, then why doesn't it show? I quickly plugged it in and I decided to look at the back of the unit while I was turning the knobs, indeed it lit up perfectly fine but why doesn't it show? The image below practically shows why, a piece of metal blocks the way.


Another shot of the unit with the metal off


While searching the internet for the LEDs, it was pita finding them in size of 2X5X6mm flat rectangular white leds so I decided to get these white 2X5X7mm from ebay
link

After I received them, it took 6 hours total to solder the old ones out and put in the new ones with just a soldering iron. My end result was worth it because it came out to be not too bright or blue.

Perfect


Now for the piece of metal, I went to my local hardware store and bought a brand new Dremel and a miniature hobby table so I can cut the little darn thing. Luckily with purchase of a new Dremel, they give you a sample cutting disk and grinding disk inside the box. I didn't have to spend extra money for more tools.

After cutting the edges off and grinding 1mm all around the openings to accommodate the new bigger LEDs, this was my end result. It's not perfect but it's well hidden anyways when it's put back together. This took me around 15 minutes to do.


Now the finished product images.



That's all

nice job man

now how bout some pics with that fan controller in your case

You'll see when other other parts come in for my other case

Great job , i was looking at that controller but at sidewinders it says using low wattage fans may produce pulsing effect when turning them down and that it should be used with 20 watt to 45 watt fans .


What fans you going to use ? And if you going to use something like yate loons , could you verify if thats indeed true ?

Cheers

very nice mod man and +1 on pics with your case

xtkxhom3r said:

very nice mod man and +1 on pics with your case

Click to expand...

Which image would that be? One was my old project and the other is the upcoming

whoa, nice mod man.
what colour are the LEDs/Fans inside your case?

can't wait to see the case pics

Great work there IKIKUINTHENUTZ on modding the Fan controller, well done, look's heaps better!!

Ok guys time for part 2 and I'm going to need your help. I have been experimenting with diffusion and so far I'm having difficulty of which one to pick.

i like the last 2

Tsnowflake said:

i like the last 2

Click to expand...

+1

yeah reckon another +1 on the last two

100% +1 on the last two.

Yet another +1 to the last two.

Thanks for posting this. I'm slowly getting the nerve to do this to my Rheobus Extreme. My one year old just LOVES to try and turn daddy's fans down. Less-bright LEDs would probably help.

PART 2 of FC-2 mods!!!!

Alright everyone, thanks for your inputs. After collecting opinions on many forums, the last one definitely was the winner.

But lets go into detail of what I did shall we?

I was talking to nd4spdbh2 of OCF and he had given me an idea of how much light was bleeding out on to the back of the unit which was shown in my image. We talked about how to address it and then came up the idea of aluminum foil behind each led.

Now ill be honest, working with small bits of aluminum and then gluing it on a slippery surface in the smallest work space available with 2 needles as tool is worth a lot of headaches but in the end, it worked out fine in the end.



This resulted what I wanted, stronger front led lighting but what I didn't expect was the fact that it was too much, it was too damn bright just like Sunbeam Controllers! Ouch!

After consulting with nd4spdbh2 again and seeing forums posts, I noticed people complained about how the lighting wasn't all around in a circle. The idea of diffusing the light came apparent.

The installation is probably the most easiest mod I have done to this unit. All you need is some type of paper that still let light through, some glue, and a razor. In this case I used parchment silicone paper that is used in baking.

Unscrew the face plate and slap the paper on with some glue


Then use a razor and cut holes where appropriate for the knobs and screws.


Then put everything back together and huzzah! Finished!

wow, looks even better than before. i love the attention to detail you put into your projects. good job.

Night time shot

Damn, looks pretty good.

gawd im such a genius.

Here's a question for you, where would I find such a nice looking fan controller